Industrial Exemption Legislation Passes House Subcommittee

The Business and Commerce Subcommittee of the House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, met Feb. 18. On the agenda was H. 4604, the industry exemption legislation.

Testifying for the bill was Lewis Gossett, CEO of the SC Manufacturers’ Alliance. Testifying in opposition of the bill were Tim Rickborn, Chair of the SC State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors and Gene Dinkins, former Chair of the SC State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors. Greg Parsons an ACEC-SC and SCSPE member and a representative of the SC Building Code Council also testified. Other Registration Board members present were Theresa Hodge, Jeff Mulliken and John Johnson.

Gossett said his organization was attempting to codify the actual practices that are taking place in manufacturing in the state.

Rickborn and Dinkins testified the language, as presented, was too broad and did not protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. The bill’s language is at odds with the definition of engineering as stated in SC Law. Both board members said the Registration Board would like to work with the manufacturer’s group to see if acceptable language to both groups could be found.

A number of subcommittee members had questions for all that testified, except Mr. Parsons.

Subcommittee members participating in the meeting were Rep. Mac Toole, Chair; Rep. Deborah Long, Rep. Nathan Ballentine, Rep. Joe McEachern and Rep. Carl Anderson.

After the testimony was heard and questions answered, a motion was made, seconded and passed for a favorable report of the bill which sends the bill to the full Labor Commerce and Industry Committee. In all probability, this bill will be on the full committee’s agenda at its next meeting, which at this time is not scheduled.

Testimony is not taken at the full committee level.

Here is the the language of H. 4604 as passed by the subcommittee:

SECTION    1.    Section 40-22-280(A) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 55 of 2012, is further amended by adding an appropriately numbered item at the end to read:

"( )    the activities of full-time employees of a manufacturing company or other personnel under the direct supervision and control of the manufacturing company, or a subsidiary of the manufacturing company, on or in connection with activities related to the research, development, design, fabrication, production, assembly, integration, installation, or service of products manufactured by the manufacturing company. This exemption does not apply to activities where the seal of a professional engineer is expressly required by statute, regulation, or building code, or to engineering services offered to the public. For the purposes of this item, 'manufacturing company' means a company that produces or assembles tangible personal property and 'other personnel' includes individuals employed by a staffing company working for the manufacturing company."

SECTION    2.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.